Wednesday, April 19, 2017

One of the reasons I have been inclined to believe claims that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian hackers and perhaps even the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential campaign is because of Donald Trump's long history of cutting deals with organized crime, including Russian crime figures, to further his own financial interests and real estate projects. Moreover, real estate investments provide a wonderful means to launder dirty money and walk away with "clean" funds one the real estate investment is sold. As an added bonus, for Russian crime figures, foreign real estate investments provide a means to set aside a "safe nest egg" should things go down the toilet on the home front. A piece at Raw Story looks at Trump's ugly history of dealing with crime figures and how it has helped fuel the investigations into possible collusion - and treason - with Russian figures and the Kremlin. Here are excerpts:

As President
Trump discovers the prerogative of unilaterally making war, the media gaze has
turned away from the ongoing FBI, House and Senate investigation of his Russia
ties to the simpler dramas of cruise missiles, big bombs, and tough but loose talk on North Korea.

Yet even “the mother of all bombs” cannot obliterate
the accumulating body of evidence about his relationship with Russian organized
crime figures and the not unrelated question about whether he and his entourage
colluded with Russian officials in the 2016 presidential election. The story, notes
Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall, is “Hiding in plain sight.”

The evidence of
pre-election collusion between Trump and the Russians, while growing, is far
from definitive. The evidence on Trump’s organized crime ties is stronger. Says
Marshall:

“If we’d never
heard about Russian intelligence hacking of the 2016 election or Carter Page or
Paul Manafort or Sergei Kislyak this [Trump’s organized crime connections]
would seem like an extraordinarily big deal. And indeed it is an
extraordinarily big deal.”

Chronologically
speaking, Trump’s ties to organized crime figures came first. Mutually
beneficial transactions dating back to the 1990s led to closer relations in the
2000s and culminated in the contacts during the 2016 campaign. It all began
with Russians who wanted to get their money out of the country.

“[I]n terms of
high-end product influx into the United States, Russians make up a pretty
disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and
certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of
money pouring in from Russia.”

A lot of this
Russian organized crime money flowed through Cyprus, and one of its largest
banks, the Bank of Cyprus. The bank’s chairman, Wilbur Ross, is now secretary
of commerce. When senators considering Ross’ nomination asked about Cyprus,
Ross said Trump had forbidden him from answering questions on
the subject.

Not
coincidentally, Illinois congressman Mike Quigley, a member of the House
Intelligence Committee, recently traveled to Cyprus to investigate,
according to the Daily Beast. . . . . the fact that Russians launder their
money there to avoid sanctions, and the fact that key U.S. and Russia players
were there—all make it really important for the Russia investigation,” Quigley
explained in an interview.

According to the
Associated Press, the records of Manafort’s Cypriot transactions
were requested by the U.S. Treasury Department Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network, which works internationally with agencies to track money laundering
and the movement of illicit funds around the globe.

The sheer
proliferation of such contact indicates, at a minimum, that Russian organized
crime figures felt comfortable in the Trump milieu.

Jonathan Winer,
former deputy assistant secretary of state for law enforcement in the Clinton
administration, says that he was investigating Semion Mogilevich 20 years
ago when “the brainy don” (as he was known) pioneered the laundering criminal
proceeds through quasi-legitimate companies in the United States, especially in
high-end real estate. . . . “These ties link up, coalesce, organize and
resolve,” Winer says. These are “relationships that make some sense. So we need
to get below what we can see on the surface and see what actually happened. … I
don’t know who’s going to be indicted, but boy, do I know this: the American
people needs to be to get the facts, and then justice can be done.”

Personally, I wonder when and what will be enough o force some of our "friends" who voted for Trump to finally pull their heads out of their asses and open their eyes to reality.

Translate This Page

Contact Me to Order Title Work

LGBT Legal Services

About Me

Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

Disclaimer on Opinions and Content

This Blog contains content that may be innapropriate for readers under the legal age of 18. IF YOU ARE UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE, PLEASE LEAVE NOW. Thank you

This is an opinion and commentary blog and the opinions and contents of this Blog - including opinions expressed concerning opponents of LGBT equality - are the opinions only of the individual blogger and should not be attributed to any other individuals or to any organization of which the blogger is a past or current member.

Followers

Michael-in-Norfolk disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, operability, or availability of information or material displayed on this site and does not claim credit for any images or articles featured on this site, unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyrighted to it's respectful owners. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies, and Michael-in-Norfolk does not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content. If you own rights to any of the images or articles, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact Michael-in-Norfolk via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. Michael-in-Norfolk contains links to other Internet sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience and are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information or content in such site has been endorsed or approved by this blog.